It was one of the larger December snow storms on record at Albany. 12.6" of snow fell over the two day period from what was a
small, compact, but powerhouse Nor'easter that quickly developed and tracked through the
Northeast. The majority of the snow accumulation occurred during the afternoon and
evening of the 30th, with minor additional amounts on the 31st from backlash moisture.
Snowfall ranged from a relative scant 5" in mountain shadowed parts of Berkshire,
Bennington, Rensselaer, and Washington counties, to 26" in upslope areas of Ulster,
Green, and Schoharie counties.

The storm rapidly formed during the very early morning hours
of 30th along the mid Atlantic coast from a strong upper level disturbance that was
plowing through the Ohio valley. The Ohio valley storm transferred it's energy to
the coast where the Nor'easter formed. The system came together and moved north very
quickly causing snow to break out across eastern New York and New England during the
morning. Snow rapidly picked up in intensity during the late morning and afternoon,
commonly falling at a rate of an inch per hour. As the system intensified rapidly
and tracked just east of New York City, into south central New England during the
afternoon, bands of snow pin wheeled into the Capital Region from the east and southeast
producing snowfall rates of between two and four inches per hour for a couple of hours.
In fact, one observer in Windham, in Greene county, reported that 5.5" of snow
fell between 3:15pm and 4:15pm on the 30th. Temperatures held steady in the upper
teens and the low 20's through the peak of the storm which meant there was a high snow
amount to water ratio. In other words, the snow was dry and quite fluffy, which made
it easy to blow around by the increasing NNE wind. Winds during the afternoon and
evening gusted to 30 mph, especially at higher elevations leading to local white out and
very poor travel conditions.

Dry air began circulating around the low center by late
afternoon across the mid Hudson valley, and western New England, which lead to diminishing
snowfall rates. The snow shut down in the Capital District during the early evening
for a couple of hours, before wrap around moisture caused intermittent light snow to move
back through eastern New York and western New England during the overnight.

The forward motion of the storm slowed a bit during the
afternoon of the 30th as the parent upper level storm caught up with the intense surface
storm. Once the upper level and surface systems linked up, the combined storm only
slowly tracked to the Northeast, which meant it was still in the area through the day on
Sunday, December 31. The storm's position on Sunday in the gulf of Maine allowed it
to circulate backlash moisture into the region which kept flurries and occasional light
snow going through the day. Only an additional 1"-3" of snow accumulated
on the 31st, with the bulk majority of accumulating snow on the ground by the evening of
the 30th. Wind gusts to 35 mph through the day on the 31st, however, leading to whiteout
conditions from blowing snow.

Snowfall amounts, as they typically do with any large
Northeast storm, varied considerably across the region. A mountain shadow effect was
observed, and was well forecast to occur, in the lee of the Greene and Berkshire
mountains. The strong east, northeast flow around the storm center was forced to
sink along the west slopes of the Green and Berkshire mountains, which caused the air to
dry leading to lower snowfall amounts in parts of Washington, Rensselaer, Bennington, and
Berkshire counties. Conversely, the flow around the low upon hitting the east slopes
of the Catskills got some extra lift. The result was excessive amounts of snow along
the windward slopes of the Catskills with up to 26" reported. Because the
physical size of this storm was relatively small, and the snow area quite compact, despite
the storm tracking close to New York City, the Adirondacks were on the far northwest edge
of the heaviest snow and thus received lighter snow amounts than areas closer to the
Nor'easter center.

The following table is a listing of storm total snowfall
amounts reported from the Channel 6 WeatherNet 6 network of weather watchers.